Homeland Security

The scale and audacity of al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States dwarfed all earlier strikes against the nation, arguably affecting U.S. society to a degree not experienced since the Civil War. Not even the surprise strike by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1941, or the terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City in 1993 left Americans’ sense of security violated to the degree that the September 11 attacks did. As a consequence, America took stock of itself and its defenses, as those charged with the protection of the country sought to prevent future attacks.

In March of 2005, the Department of Homeland Security instituted new exit procedures at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. During a press conference to unveil the new policies, Homeland Security official Diane Evans stands at a new departure terminal, where visitors must have their pictures and fingerprints taken, as well as their passports recorded electronically. (AP Photo, AP)

The task of protecting American soil against the newly apparent (if not wholly new) threat of another catastrophic terrorist attack fell to the Office of Homeland Security. Established in October 2001, it became the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on November 25, 2002. The first secretary of homeland security was Tom Ridge. Secretary Ridge—a former governor of Pennsylvania—headed the DHS until 2004 when he resigned and was replaced by Michael Chertoff. The DHS has described its mission as being threefold: prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America's vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage from potential attacks and natural disasters.

The new department's formation was the largest government reorganization since the founding of the U.S. Department of Defense half a century earlier. The DHS absorbed 22 previously separate government agencies and comprised some 180,000 employees at its inception. In addition to a Management Directorate, which was responsible for [Page 352]personnel issues as well as budgetary and management concerns, the new organization had four other major divisions.

The largest, the Border and Transportation Directorate—which comprised agencies such at the former U.S. Customs and Immigration and Naturalization services, as well as the Transportation and Security Administration—was responsible for securing U.S. borders and transportation systems. The Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate was charged with maintaining America's ability to prepare for and recover from terrorist attacks and natural disasters. The research and development efforts of the DHS were coordinated by the Science and Technology Directorate, which was responsible for ensuring that America was prepared for the widest possible range of terrorist attacks, up to and including strikes with weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate was to handle the intelligence related to homeland security, to take preventive and protective measures, and to issue warnings as the need arose.

Responsibility for the homeland defense element of America's wider homeland security effort was assumed by the newly established U.S. Northern Command (Northcom) in 2002, which conceived of its task as preventing, preempting, deterring, and defending against aggression toward American territory. Homeland defense was more narrowly defined as “the protection of U.S. territory, domestic population and critical infrastructure against military attacks emanating from outside the United States.” Northcom, whose area of responsibility included the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Mexico (and surrounding water out to approximately 500 nautical miles, as well as the Gulf of Mexico, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), initially comprised 500 civil servants and uniformed personnel drawn from across the U.S. armed forces, and had no standing combat force of its own.

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